2 ways Social Media is changing traditional marketing

Social media has evolved over the last half decade and is now part of customer strategy for almost all enterprises. Slowly, it is changing the rules of the game and defining the way marketing is done for maximum impact. The tools and techniquesof the old marketing has been replaced by the social media techniques. Also, social media is bring in more accountabilityto the marketing teams as they directly interact with the end users.

Tools and Techniques

Marketing teams can now leverage Social Media features like Micro blogging, status updates, blogging, Video capture, Wiki, Podcast, Webinars amongst others and use them in a standalone or in combination to replace the traditional marketing methods. The list given below is a snapshot of how some of the traditional marketing approaches can be replaced by theses Social Media tools:

Traditional Approach	Social Media
Press Release	Blogs/ Micro-blogs/ Status Update
White Papers	Series of blog posts
Product Brochure	Wiki or Web page
Road-show	Webinar/ Podcast
Product Demo Video	Video Series

You can find a good comparison between the traditional marketing and social marketing in this blog.

Accountability

Social Media also brings in more accountability into the marketing teams. The earlier traditional approach had multiple levels of filter in place where the content as designed by the marketing team were vetted and verified by multiple teams - Corporate Marketing, PR team etc. Social Media does away with the hierarchy. There is a direct interaction of the marketing team with the end-user. Social Accountability Will Be the New Currency of the Web where each person will responsible for ensuring that the content they posted was accurate, complete, and correct.

Social Media is definitely a better option than traditional marketing as it high on agility and reach where as it is low on cycle time and cost. I would love to get your feedback on this.